Method for rapid development of schedule controled networkable merchant ecommerce sites

ABSTRACT

An improved computerized ecommerce method, optimized for smaller merchants such as florists who often provide seasonal perishable gifts that require local delivery, and who often desire to form cooperative networks with local merchants offering related gift services, as well as other related merchants such as other florists in more distant locations. The web server based method allows merchants to easily set up non-static (time variable) websites that automatically provide schedule driven promotions. New products can be quickly uploaded from smartphones, and sophisticated time and location aware algorithms can compute accurate delivery costs and make such costs transparent to customers. Other participating merchants can be easily added to the system to form local and distant cooperative merchant networks. The system simplifies customer use of promotional offers by cross checking customer URL versus promotion lists. Recipient gift appreciation is optimized by providing interfaces to allow customer designed gift cards and messages.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisionalapplication 61/807,214, “METHOD FOR RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF SCHEDULECONTROLLED NETWORKABLE MERCHANT ECOMMERCE SITES”, inventor SundaramNatarajan, filed Apr. 1, 2013; the complete contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

This invention is in the field of internet web server facilitatedecommerce and mobile ecommerce apps for handheld computerized devices.

Description of the Related Art

As internet technology has advanced, more and more commerce is doneusing computerized devices that connect with various commercecomputerized data servers, often web servers, over the internet. Suchinternet facilitated commerce services are generally referred to asecommerce.

Although many large corporations, such as Amazon.com, eBay, and the likehave transformed commerce through the use of large scale banks ofservers, which offer a large range of online products, certain areas ofcommerce have not advanced as quickly. In particular, smaller scalelocal merchants such as florists, bakers, party supply vendors, and thelike, who often may offer local delivery of various perishable productssuch as flowers and perishable foods, often for gift purposes, have beenless well served.

As a result, often these various local merchants must expend aconsiderable amount of time, energy, and money creating and updatingtheir own individual ecommerce websites. To assist in this process,certain prior art ecommerce software packages, such as the open sourceOsCommerce® system, and other systems such as Magento®, are availablethat provide a prefabricated software ecommerce framework for merchantsto set up their own online ecommerce systems. However these prior artprefabricated ecommerce framework software systems still require aconsiderable amount of customization to optimize. Indeed they are oftenso complex that usually use of skilled programmers is required toproduce good results.

An additional problem that various local merchants, in particular giftmerchants such as florists, have is that there is often a need formerchants in one geographic area to cooperate with merchants fromanother geographic area. Such merchants may have loyal local customersthat tend to assume that the merchant has an ability to extend its localservices further than may actually be the case, and who turn to thelocal merchant for assistance for things such as delivering gifts tomore distant locations.

Thus, for example, in many third party beneficiary contracts such asgifts, a customer/buyer may wish to work with a local florist to arrangefor a more distant florist to deliver a gift of flowers to a third partybeneficiary type recipient such as a relative, friend, or businessassociate.

In an effort to meet these consumer expectations, some local merchantssuch as florists sign up for relatively high overhead services, such asFTD florist, that allow the florists and their customers to access acentral website, and contract with florists located closer to therecipient's location to deliver a standardized series of floralarrangements. However such services come at a cost. Because only alimited range of standardized floral arrangements are made available, itis all too often the case that the florists that happen to be locatednear the delivery area cannot or would prefer not to deliver theadvertised floral arrangements. Further, the prior art delivery chargemethods tended to hide the true costs of delivery from the customer, andalso tended to impose unrealistic delivery cost expectations on thedelivery florist. Thus further improvements in the area of ecommercetechnology, in particular for local merchants such as florists thatprovide gift type perishable products that may also have to bedelivered, would be desirable.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is based, in part, on the overall vision of delivering ahighly automated, flexible, and easy to use ecommerce system, optimizedfor the needs of local merchants such as florists that often deliverperishable products (often gifts). The system is designed to be simpleenough that even merchants who are relatively unskilled in computertechnology can maintain their ecommerce systems with minimal amounts oftime, effort, and money.

The invention may be particularly useful for the gift industry where thebuyer and the recipient are two different entities and for situationswhere either same day delivery or scheduled delivery is desired. Some ofthe various aspects of the invention include:

Calendar or other schedule based automatic website updates: Theinvention is based, in part, on the insight that for many localmerchants of perishable products, particularly when delivery is part ofthe purchase, and particularly when the products may be gifts, have alarge fraction of their orders occur on a predictable schedule. Inparticular, a large percentage of purchases occur on a calendar typeschedule based on important secular or religious holidays, such asChristmas, Hanukkah, New Years, Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year,Easter, and the like.

During these peak event times, it often is useful for the merchant to atleast partially customize their website with various event specificbanners and other graphics and text, as well as various products orservices focused on these particular events. Thus florists, for example,may wish to promote corsages at graduation times, bouquets of roses atValentine's Day, put up ecommerce website banners commemorating Easter,and so on.

Because these scheduled events can be predicted in advance, and have aknown sequence and duration, in one embodiment, the invention provides acalendar based scheduling service, as well as various online artistictools enabling the merchant to quickly customize their website withcalendar controlled banners, and calendar controlled product offerings.This allows the merchant to set up a timed series of event specificbanners and other event specific web features that automatically updatethe merchant's ecommerce website to reflect these events. Once set up,the merchant's ecommerce website can then remain automatically currentthroughout the year with a minimal need for further manual updating.

Sophisticated delivery cost estimation engine: The invention is alsobased, in part, on the insight that particularly with regards to localdelivery; often the merchant's actual delivery costs are highly variabledepending on day, time of day, and exact geographical locations of themerchant and the recipient. Prior art ecommerce services, particularlyfor small merchant mediated deliveries, failed to sufficiently keeptrack of such costs. This had unfortunate consequences for all partiesconcerned. For example, a florist that had to accept an order with anunrealistically low delivery cost would be tempted to recoup at leastsome of the extra delivery costs by substituting a cheaper product. Thusthe buyer might order a fancy bouquet, but pay an unrealistically lowdelivery cost. The recipient might in turn receive a substandardbouquet. Despite all this, the merchant might still end up with aninadequate profit.

To help prevent situations such as this, the invention further providesa sophisticated delivery cost customization engine or set of algorithmsthat allows the merchant to precisely dial in more realistic time andlocation variable delivery costs, provide more realistic delivery costcalculations, and make these costs available to the purchaser (typicallyecommerce purchaser). The net result is that the purchaser can makeintelligent delivery decisions, and the delivery merchant is adequatelycompensated for the true costs of delivery. The delivery merchant thushas less incentive to compensate for unrealistic delivery costs bysubstituting lower quality products.

Addition of new products in minutes using smartphone apps: The inventionis also based, in part, on the insight that many local merchants arecreative and innovative individuals who often have both the desire andability to come up with various creative variations on otherwisestandard products. However due to the cumbersome nature of present dayecommerce systems, the burden on the local merchant to customize theirwebsite to adequately showcase these spontaneous creations tends toinhibit this creativity. Again using the floral industry as an example,a local florist may come up with a creative and cost effective newfloral arrangement in a few minutes; but if it takes hours of work tothen advertise the new floral arrangement on the florist's ecommercewebsite, then that creative new floral arrangement may never see thelight of day.

In another embodiment, to address this problem, the invention utilizesmodern smartphone or mobile computerized tablet technology to provideeasy to use ecommerce website maintenance apps. These apps allowmerchants to utilize the smartphone's camera to photograph or take shortvideo clips of their creations, tap in a new product listing, and uploada new product to their ecommerce website in a few minutes or less.

Easy formation of ecommerce networks with other participating merchants:The invention is also based, in part, on the insight that localmerchants often need to cooperate with other merchants. These othermerchants can be other local merchants or artisans, or may be moredistantly located merchants and artisans.

For example, a local florist and a local baker may find it advantageousto cross promote each other's products and services on each other'swebsites so that, for example, a purchaser who wishes to send a gift offlowers could also have a cake delivered at the same time, and viceversa. Additionally, again using the floral industry as an example,different florists in geographically different locations may wish tojoin forces to form their own network of connected floral services.

The invention's merchant networking capability allows merchants tospontaneously form various formal and informal networks. The invention'smerchant networking capabilities can operate automatically and, apartfrom merchant sign up, can then require little or no additional humanintervention or overhead. Alternatively an administrator can facilitatethis process as desired.

As a result, due to fact that there are little or no middleman fees, theinvention's merchant networks can operate with high efficiently. At thesame time, by joining forces, an originating merchant, such as aflorist, in one area of the country can send business to anotherrecipient/delivery merchant (i.e. another florist) in another area ofthe country, and pocket a decent commission for this. However becausethere is otherwise no middleman to extract fees from the system, enoughmoney remains that the distant delivery merchant can still provide ahigh quality requested product at a satisfactory profit margin as well.

In another embodiment, the invention also provides an easy to implementsystem and method to allow formation of such informal merchant networks.As a result, everyone, purchaser, first originating merchant, secondrecipient/delivery merchant, and the ultimate gift or product recipientis more likely to be satisfied due to the high efficiency and lack ofmiddleman costs of the system.

No purchaser effort promotional code system: The invention is furtherbased on the insight that prior art mechanisms of providing promotionalcodes for purchases were too cumbersome. According to prior art, if acompany such as Intel received a group promotional code for a discountoff of purchases (e.g. 10% off), the employees of the company would haveto obtain the Intel promotional code and provide it to the merchant inorder to receive discounts. However according to the invention'simproved methods, the invention's ecommerce web server can optionallylink these promotions directly with the originating ecommerce customer'sURL or email address (here for example, web browser purchasesoriginating from Intel, or Intel purchaser email addresses) from whichthe product purchase had originated. The system can then use the productpurchase URL or email address to automatically assign promotionalproduct price or shipping discounts, thus reducing purchaser effort.

Recipient delivery and gift customization: The invention is also based,in part, on the insight that although many such local merchant ecommercebased purchases will be for gifts for others, often such gifts need notbe surprise gifts. When such gifts are not surprise gifts, it can oftenbe further desirable to give the gift recipient at least some advancenotice of the gift, as well as at least some ability to modify the timethat the gift arrives, and even potentially modify the nature of thegift. Thus for example, a recipient of flowers can get an advance emailor SMS notice of the gift, along with a link to the invention'secommerce website, and may be able to redirect the time or day ofarrival to a more appropriate time or day of arrival, thus ensuring thatthe flowers arrive when the recipient is not on vacation.

Alternatively a recipient of a gift for a first flavor or type of cakemight modify the cake to a more preferred type or flavor. In anotherembodiment, the invention also provides for such an ability to notifythe recipient electronically, and to allow at least partial modificationof the gift by, for example, going to the local merchant's website andselecting various alternative delivery or gift type options.

Easy customer gift card customization: The invention is further based onthe insight that at least with regards to gifts; often the giftrecipient values the thought (i.e. affection, good intentions) behindthe gift as much or more than the gift itself. However present industrypractice of only providing entry of text into otherwise standardizedgift card designs somewhat defeats this purpose. The invention furtherprovides an easy to use user interface that allows the purchaser of thegift to custom design the art of the gift cards delivered with thegifts, as well. Thus, for example, gift cards can appear to be handdrawn with customer generated handwriting and customer generated orselected art or doodles, further providing evidence of the purchasers'thought behind the gift. These artistically customized gift cards canfurther enhance the mutual satisfaction of both the gift giver andrecipient.

Thus in one embodiment, the system may be an ecommerce method andsystem, which can be optimized for smaller merchants such as floristswho often engage in seasonal perishable gifts that require localdelivery, and who often need to form cooperative networks with localmerchants offering related gift services, as well as other relatedmerchants such as other florists in more distant locations. Theinvention's web server based method allows merchants to easily set upnon-static (time variable) ecommerce websites that automatically provideschedule driven promotions. New products can be easily entered into thewebsite using smartphones to photograph and then upload along withproduct descriptions. More sophisticated time and location awarealgorithms can more accurately compute accurate delivery costs, and canalso make such costs transparent to customers, resulting in moreintelligent purchases and increased satisfaction. Other participatingmerchants can be easily added to the system to form cooperative localand distant merchant networks. The system can further simplifyadministration of promotions by cross checking customer URL versuspromotion lists. Additionally, recipient gift appreciation may befurther optimized by providing interfaces to allow customer designedgift cards and messages with customer handwritten text and sketches.

Other features, such as the ability to operate multiple automaticallycustomized cloned ecommerce websites (for higher sales and search enginecustomization), and automatic posting of product updates to onlinesocial networks, will also be described.

Although in some embodiments, the invention may be operated on apeer-to-peer basis, with data decentralized and exchanged among a numberof cooperating merchant ecommerce servers, in a preferred embodiment, asingle database may be used to drive at least the high level aspects ofthe system. Although this single database may also store and retrievevarious types of data from a variety of merchant servers, at least on atemporary basis, in the single database embodiment, the single databasewill generally end up holding some or even all of the data needed tomanage the system. This single database can also be used to createvarious merchant/administrator control panels, manage uploads anddownloads from various smartphone apps, as well as to help implementvarious merchant point-of-sale systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an overview of the system. The main component of the systemexists in the form of internet web server ecommerce software. Merchants,purchasers, and recipients can interact with the web server ecommercesoftware using standard web browsers or apps running on variouscomputerized devices such as smartphones.

FIG. 2A shows an example of how the invention can assemble product datafrom various dynamic sections (from database memory) to constructdifferent types of ecommerce webpages depending on the server'sclock/calendar, and a previously stored calendar schedule of productavailability.

FIG. 2B shows a flow chart giving a rough overview of how theinvention's schedule driven system operates, and how this operation maybe controlled by a merchant using a control panel such as anadministrator web page.

FIG. 2C shows a flow chart showing how an ecommerce customer caninteract with the system's schedule driven ecommerce web pages, selectproducts that can be delivered by either a local merchant or a remotemerchant (located near the recipient), and also customize a product giftcard as desired.

FIG. 3 shows the ecommerce system' merchant administrator “finder”screen, which can function as the system login page for the centralizedserver and database. The merchant will often interact with theinvention's server software via the merchant's web browser, which inturn will allow the merchant access to various control panel(administration panel) web pages by which the merchant can configure andadminister the merchant's particular ecommerce site.

FIG. 4 shows the administration panel. This administration panel allowsthe merchant to access various functions such as managing orders,products, add-on products, quickly add products, set sale or promotionalactivities such as promo codes, view and rename categories, set up themerchant's website, and other functions.

FIG. 5 shows how the merchant can select the settings functions toinitially setup the merchant's ecommerce website. The merchant canupload the merchant's logo, set delivery zones, set prices and paymentinformation, and set various point of sale (POS) options. The systemalso allows the merchant to select if orders can be delivered by emailor fax or directly to a point of sale partner such as MAS. The systemalso allows the merchant to select preferred partners to facilitatecross selling of various products.

FIG. 6 shows how the merchant can use the system settings to specify themerchant's logo, enter in the merchant's business name, description,contact information, address, and various standard fees and commissions.

FIG. 7 shows how the merchant can use the system to further edit theimages and other descriptions for a particular product.

FIG. 8 shows the merchant now selecting a product pricing option.

FIG. 9 shows how the merchant can use the system to describe the product(here a product arrangement) in more detail, and also set various salesand promotions.

FIG. 10 shows how the merchant can use the system to quickly and easilyproduce various advertising banners that may be displayed on the websiteaccording to various predetermined schedules.

FIG. 11 shows how the system may store a variety of different merchantdesigned banners, and automatically switch to showing various banners onvarious days of the year. Here for example, the system shows aValentine's Day banner on Valentine's Day, a Chinese New Year banneraround the time of the Chinese New Year, and so on.

FIG. 12 shows how many different types of banners may be entered intothe system and configured to automatically display at various dates andtimes.

FIG. 13 shows how the merchant can modify the price as a function ofdate using the system's calendar function. Here the price of roses isaltered by 10% right after Valentine's Day.

FIG. 14 shows the merchant adding other calendar sensitive pricingmodifications to the calendar for various products.

FIG. 15 shows how the merchant can use the system settings to specifythe merchant's days and times of standard delivery service, as well asextended days and hours of delivery service for additional charges.

FIG. 16 shows how the merchant can also select countries or othergeographical areas of service. Here, for example, a merchant located onthe border between the US and Canada, and potentially serving bothcountries, can select a geographic zone (e.g. US/Canada) using a pulldown menu.

FIG. 17 shows how the merchant can use a smartphone or tablet app tophotograph a product (such as a floral arrangement) and quickly uploadthe photo to the invention's ecommerce system. There the uploadedproduct photo can be rapidly incorporated into the merchant's onlineecommerce site. Here the user is initializing the smartphone app.

FIG. 18 shows how after the merchant has taken several photographs ofthe product, the merchant can then use the app to choose which photos touse from the smartphone or tablet's photo album.

FIG. 19 shows the merchant looking through the smartphone's or tablet'sphoto album to find the best photo to upload for that particularproduct.

FIG. 20 shows that the merchant has selected the best photo from thephoto album, and now can upload it to the invention's ecommerce system.

FIG. 21 shows that the merchant can also use the tablet or smartphoneapp to enter in a partial or full description of the product associatedwith the photo.

FIG. 22 shows that the merchant now has used the smartphone or tabletapp to both select the product photo and enter in other productinformation.

FIG. 23 shows that the merchant has now uploaded the product photo anddescription to the system.

FIG. 24 shows the main system interface by which the merchant can nowinteract with the uploaded product photo and description.

FIG. 25 shows the product photo and description that was previouslyuploaded by the merchant from their smartphone or tablet app. Themerchant may optionally further adjust the photo or product descriptionusing the web browser based system interface as desired.

FIG. 26 shows how the merchant, again in the settings section, can alsoadd a network link to another preferred florist.

FIG. 27 shows the merchant continuing to add additional florists to thatmerchant's own preferred florist network, thus building up a uniquenetwork of favored florist partners.

FIG. 28 shows the merchant now operating the system's “Sell My Products”(SMP) section to enter in information about that merchant's productsthat the merchant wishes to expose to other participating merchants onthe invention's merchant network.

FIG. 29 shows a close up of the orders portion of the network system.

FIG. 30 shows how the merchant can review the system record of themerchant's various outgoing network orders.

FIG. 31 shows how the merchant can review the system record of variouspending merchant network orders.

FIG. 32 shows how the initiating merchant can adjust how the variouspending network orders are transmitted to another recipient merchant.Here various options such as transmit by fax, email, electronic transferto the florist via the system, or transfer to the MAS system can beselected using a drop down menu.

FIG. 33 shows the initiating merchant electing to have the systemtransfer the pending network order to the recipient merchant via thesystem's electronic transfer to florist option.

FIG. 34 shows that the initiating merchant can also set a time limit inwhich to transfer the order to the network recipient merchant.

FIG. 35 shows the merchant here instructing the system that it mustreceive confirmation from the network recipient merchant within 30minutes of placing the order, or else timeout.

FIG. 36 shows the system's merchant products configuration interface.

FIG. 37 shows the merchant adjusting the SMP (sell my products price)pricing for their various network sales of floral arrangements.

FIG. 38 shows the merchant further adjusting the SMP (sell my productsprice) pricing for their various network sales of floral arrangements.

FIG. 39 shows the initiating merchant updating the system to show afloral arrangement that is provided by a partner network receivingmerchant, along with pricing information.

FIG. 40 shows the merchant updating more information about the product,here entering in a brief description from a drop down menu.

FIG. 41 shows the merchant now updating the price for the new product.

FIG. 42 shows how the merchant may additionally cooperate with otherlocal merchants and artisans to cross promote their products. Thus abuyer browsing a florist's site might also see advertisements from alocal bakery for a cake, and decide to also send a gift chocolate caketo the recipient along with the flowers.

FIG. 43 shows the system's promotions interface in more detail. Herethere is one promotion presently running, and the merchant is in theprocess of adding another promotion.

FIG. 44 shows the merchant adding additional information about the nextpromotion to the system's promotion interface. Here Intel is being givena corporation discount.

FIG. 45 shows that the merchant has now added another promotion to theinterface. Here the promotion is for the company Intel, and the systemautomatically gives the promotion to all employees who access the systemfrom the Intel domain, or provide an Intel.com email address.

FIG. 46 shows an example of an ecommerce customer customizing the designof a gift card. The system then directs the remote merchant, who isresponsible for delivery of the associated product, to print out anddeliver the gift card along with the ordered product.

FIG. 47 shows an example of how the system can clone multiple relatedecommerce websites, each automatically customized for a particulartarget audience. This feature helps drive sales to various specializedgroups, and also is useful for search engine optimization purposes.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As previously discussed, the invention is designed to allow rapid setupand modification of ecommerce websites, particularly ecommerce websitesoptimized for the unique needs of local merchants who deliver perishableproducts and gifts, such as florists, bakers, and the like. Theinvention is designed so that it can be easily used by users withminimal computer and programming skills. The system is further designedso that merchants can maintain the system using only standard webbrowsers, and apps running on standard handheld internet connectedcomputerized devices such as smartphones (e.g. the popular iPhoneAndroid series phones), tablet computers, laptop computers, desktopcomputers, and the like.

Some of the novel aspects of the system, as previously discussed,include calendar based automatic website updates, a more sophisticateddelivery cost estimation engine, an ability for merchants to add newproducts to their ecommerce sites, using simple to use smartphone apps,in only a few minutes, easy formation of ecommerce networks with otherparticipating merchants, simplified, no customer effort, promotionalcode system, improved recipient delivery time and gift customization,easy customer gift card customization, and other improvements to bediscussed. Additional aspects also include automated search engineoptimization features, ability to automatically manage multiple merchant“echo” ecommerce websites, and ability to automatically push productupdates to various social media sites.

FIG. 1 shows an overview of the system. The invention can be consideredto be, in part, as an improved computer implemented method of conductingecommerce.

In some embodiments, the invention may be a method of managing at leastone schedule driven dynamic layout ecommerce website for at least onemerchant (usually a plurality of cooperating merchants). In a preferredembodiment, at least one processor (often located in centralized server100) utilizing centralized database (106) and automated website creationsoftware (104) (which will be described in more detail shortly) willmanage at least the high level organization of the system. Inparticular, this centralized server (100) and centralized database (106)can be used to configure at least one (and usually multiple) scheduledriven dynamic layout ecommerce websites. FIG. 1 shows these websites asbeing run on other servers (e.g. 102-M1 a, 102-M1 b, 102-M2 a) that aredifferent from the centralized server (100). However because servers canrun multiple websites, and one machine can run multiple virtualmachines, each running their own servers, this need not always be thecase.

In a preferred embodiment, these ecommerce websites will typically haveat least some web pages composed or made up of various dynamic sections.These dynamic sections, which are shown in more detail in FIG. 2A, aregenerally associated with various corresponding products (e.g. FIG. 1:130 a, 130 b) and product data. This will often be done on a one productper dynamic section basis. This product data may comprise informationsuch as a description of the product (product description, which caninclude both text as well as images and video of the product), productprice (which may vary according to a time schedule, inventoryavailability, merchant entered variables, promotions, and otherparameters), one or more Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) identifier(s), productinventory information (e.g. how many in stock, or how many productcomponents in stock), and product availability schedule (often acalendar schedule) showing days or times when the product is available.Additionally information as to which merchant has the product in stock,and location from which the product may be shipped, may also be includedin the product data.

Other data, which may be stored in the form of product data, or in thedata for the merchant associated with a given product, can again includethe location where the product is shipped from (often the location wherethe merchant for that particular product is located). The other data mayalso include shipping information for that product shipping location.This can include shipping prices, as well as various delivery times andlocation constraints. Various shipping price modifiers (e.g. promotions,price varying as per delivery time, price varying as per shippinglocation, price varying according to various other merchant enteredparameters) can also be included. Relative to FIG. 1, a specific examplehere would be the shipping price as determined by the time and addresswhere the product (130 a) should be delivered to the recipient (132 a).

Note that this shipping information, and the computed shipping price,will often be quite sensitive to the product shipping location (oftenthe location of the merchant that has the product) as well as therecipient's location. Thus the computed shipping price to ship product(130 b) to recipient (132 b) may be quite different than the shippingprice to ship product (130 a) to recipient (132 a). The system may alsobe configured to either not accept the possibility of some productlocation shipping destinations, such as the possibility of shippingproduct (130 a) to recipient (132 b); or suggest alternative merchantsor products instead. Often the system will be configured to try tooptimize selection of merchants and products so that at least amongcooperating merchants all enrolled in the system, merchants locatedcloser to the recipient destination will often be given at least ahigher weighting in the selection process.

Put alternatively, the product delivery time and location constraintscan be viewed as imposing product delivery charge and surchargeinformation for certain delivery times and locations, relative thatproduct's shipping location.

As previously discussed, in a preferred embodiment, this product data(usually for a plurality of products) will be stored in a centralizeddatabase (106). For convenience, often this product data (and other dataas well) can be entered or updated (usually by the merchant or adesignated agent of the merchant) using various methods, such as a webbrowser based administrator webpage (114) or mobile app (116) run onvarious types of computerized devices, and usually connected to theserver (100) and centralized database (106) via a network connectionsuch as an Internet connection (110).

For each dynamic section (see FIG. 2: 200, 204, 206) associated with acorresponding product, a computer processor (either located in acentralized server 100, or alternatively located in a differentecommerce website controlled by the centralized server 100, such as102-M1 a, 102-M1 b, 102-M2 a) will examine the product data, accordingto a time schedule (often calendar based) for those scheduled times(e.g. Valentine's day (220), all occasions, (222), Christmas (224)) thatthese various products are available. The system will generally alsoexamine the available inventory for these products, or the variousproduct components, as well.

If the processor and software determine if that a particular product hasa scheduled time of availability, and if the product (or its variouscomponents) are also in inventory (usually the inventory of a particularmerchant local to either the ecommerce customer-buyer or recipient),then the processor and software will configure the ecommerce website orwebsites to display these dynamic sections.

For example, in FIG. 2A, assume that a merchant has three potentialproducts. Product 1 (200), (202) is a floral arrangement scheduled toappear around Valentine's Day. Product 2 (204), (206) is a floralarrangement that is scheduled to appear at all times. Product 3 (208),(210) is a floral arrangement that is scheduled to appear aroundChristmas. Here photographs of the products are shown as (202), (204),(206), and the dynamic sections (that contain the product data)associated with these products are shown as (200), (204), (208). Notethat these dynamic sections generally exist as data structures incomputer memory.

Although the term “dynamic section” is used to help convey theunderlying data transfer mechanisms that may be used, note that thereare alternative ways to structure this data in memory, and thesespecific examples are not intended to be limiting.

In this example, also assume that the merchant has the components of allthree products (here the flowers and vases for all floral arrangements)in stock at all times. According to the invention, the system willexamine the various dynamic sections associated with each product. Whenthe system's time (calendar day) is around Valentine's Day, the systemwill determine that dynamic sections (200) and (204), but not (208)should be used to construct the ecommerce website page (230). When thesystem's time (calendar day) is around Christmas, then the system willdetermine that dynamic sections (204) and (208), but not (200) should beused to construct a somewhat different ecommerce website page (232). SeeFIG. 2B for a flow chart of this process.

Put alternatively, at the proper schedule times, and if the product isin inventory, the system will use at least some data (e.g. images 202,206) from the dynamic sections associated with the correspondingecommerce product on at least one web page of an ecommerce website (e.g.page 230), but otherwise not display data (e.g. image 210) from thenon-scheduled or out of inventory dynamic sections (e.g. 208) associatedwith that corresponding ecommerce product.

Note that in some embodiments involving different but cooperatingmerchants, if merchant 1 does not have the product in inventory, hiswebsite may thus not (at least initially) not show that product, whilethe website of a different merchant in the system, say merchant 2 (M2)may show that product. However if the ecommerce customer then identifiesthat the recipient has an address near the location of Merchant 2, thesystem may (in some embodiments) then start to automatically displayproducts carried by Merchant 2 on Merchant 1's website. This optionalscheme can be useful in order to encourage the customer to order theproduct without changing websites, and with minimal extra expendituresof the customer's time and energy. Merchant 1 and 2 can work out variousfee split arrangements to handle this type of situation, and these feesplits can also be handled in an automated manner. Other automatedmethods of informing the customer that merchant 2 is carrying thedesired product may also be used.

Returning to FIG. 1, in typical use, an ecommerce customer, usuallyinteracting with the website using a web browser (108) or app (108) runon an Internet connected computerized device, will provide a productpurchase request. This product purchase request will usually include aproduct identifier such as an SKU, as well as a requested deliverylocation and delivery time. Either the server hosting the website (e.g.102-M1 a), or often a server located on the centralized server (100), ora combination of the two will use at least one processor (e.g. computerprocessor, microprocessor) to determine a preferred shipping locationfor the requested product or products. The system will also examine theproduct delivery time and location constraints relative, to the shippinglocation of the product(s). The system will then use this information(e.g. requested delivery location and delivery time relative to theproduct shipping location to compute product delivery surcharges for theproduct(s). The system will also automatically display the productdelivery charges and surcharges on the website as well. This way theecommerce customer can make informed tradeoffs between cost of theproduct, and the impact of various delivery locations and times onshipping costs, before completing the purchase. A flow chart of thispart of the process is shown in FIG. 2C.

Thus when the ecommerce customer (108), (112) purchases the productusing the ecommerce website (e.g. 102-M1 a), the system can use at leastone processor (which may be located on (104) or (102-M1 a), or both) torecord the sale the product(s), the product shipping location, changesin product inventory data at the product shipping location as well asrequested product delivery time and requested delivery location. In apreferred embodiment, this information will be stored in the centralizeddatabase (106).

The system will also generally use at least one processor (which againmay be located on either the centralized servers (100), or on otherecommerce web servers such as (102-M1 a) to transmit notification ofproduct sale to the ecommerce customer. Additionally, notice of the sale(along with the other relevant information such as shipping information)will also be transmitted to at least one computerized device associatedwith distribution of product from the product shipping location. Againusing FIG. 1 as an example, if merchant 1 is shipping the product (130a) to recipient (132 a), and the computerized devices (114), (116) areM1's computerized devices, then the notice of sale and shippinginformation can be transmitted to (114) or (116).

Thus in essence, many of the invention's methods are as previouslytaught in parent provisional application 61/807,214, the contents ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference. As before, a main part ofthe invention's methods may be implemented by ecommerce web serversoftware running on a cloud service (100) and a central database (106)comprised of one or more internet connected web servers. The inventionsoftware may comprise website software and apps (102), a rules engine(104), and a multi-vendor product database (106). Customers (e.g.buyers) can interact with the invention's ecommerce system throughvarious methods, including using web browsers (108) running on variousstandard computerized devices connected to the server/cloud service(100) via the internet (110), and standard smartphone or tablet computerapps (112) running on standard smartphones and tablets (e.g. iPhone,Android devices etc.) and connected to the cloud service (100) via awireless interface and usually also via the internet (110) as well.

Merchants will usually also connect to the cloud service (100) viaeither standard web browsers or apps running on standard internetconnected computerized devices (114). Often specialized web pagesprovided by cloud service (100) that provide an administrator panel(control panel) or interface for the merchant. As will be discussed, theinvention also provides a method by which merchants can also quickly(within a few minutes) upload photos and descriptions of new productsand add them to their ecommerce sites using apps running on standardsmartphones or tablet computers (116).

FIG. 2C shows a simplified flow chart showing the data flow for someaspects of the invention. In this example, customers (260) can login tothe merchant's ecommerce website by various methods, including directlogin and by other methods, such as logging in through various socialnetworks such as Facebook. In some embodiments, the customer may alsogive the system access to the customer's friends list, thus allowing theecommerce system to extract useful information pertaining to milestoneevents for friends, such as birthdays, and remind the customer of theseevents.

By either login event, assuming that the customer is interested in usingthe system to purchase a gift, the customer can enter in the giftrecipient's name and address (262).

In normal use, often the customer is working with a local merchant(originating merchant) website to complete the gift. However in theevent that the gift recipient is too far away, then the merchant in turnmay forward the gift information to a remote merchant who will thencomplete the transaction. Alternatively, and often in the case where asuitable local merchant is not available, the system may allow the userto directly select the remote merchant. In yet another embodiment (shownin FIG. 2C), the system may automatically (262) determine a suitableremote merchant (M2) (266), and automatically load the remote merchant'sproduct data, shipping data, and other information (268) and display iton the website (270) without forcing the ecommerce customer to switch tothe remote merchant's website.

Thus there are various alternatives to handle out-of-area deliveries.The customer may use the invention's server or cloud based service tomanually request that the system find various preferred merchants withina certain radius of the recipient's address, or this can be doneautomatically. The system can then provide the customer with informationpertaining one or more various participating merchants within thisgeographic area. The buyer can then select products of interest and usethe system's checkout function to purchase the product.

Put alternatively, as previously discussed in some embodiments, thesystem may handle a plurality of cooperating merchants (here exemplifiedagain by merchant 1 and merchant 2 in FIG. 1), each carrying at leastsome common products or commonly configurable products (e.g. 130 a, 130b).

In these embodiments, the system may be configured to transmit productpurchase requests received from a first ecommerce website (103-M1 a)under first merchant control by a first merchant (merchant 1) to asecond ecommerce website (102-M2 a) under second merchant control by asecond merchant (merchant 2). Generally this second ecommerce website(102-M2 a) will be oriented (or run by) a merchant who serves ageographic area closer to the requested recipient delivery location (132b) than the geographic area served by the merchant that runs the firstecommerce website (102-M1 a).

Since both merchants are fully participating in the system, each can beassumed to have previously uploaded the product data and productdelivery time and location constraints for their respective locations tothe centralized database (106).

Thus the system can use the product data and product time and deliveryconstraints uploaded by the second merchant, along with the product'srequested delivery time and location, and compute the second merchant'sprice and product delivery charges and surcharges. The system can thendisplay this second merchant (Merchant 2's) price and product deliverycharges and surcharges Merchant 1's website (102-M1 a), thus giving apotentially seamless way of working with Merchant 2. As previouslydiscussed, the fee splits for this arrangement can also be handled bythe system, so that Merchant 2's portion of a payment made on theMerchant 1 website (102-M1 a) can be transferred automatically toMerchant 2 as desired.

Gift Cards

As shown in both FIGS. 2C and 46, in some embodiments, the system canalso enable the customer to optionally (272) create customized giftcards, intended to be delivered to the recipient along with the customerselected product(s) (e.g. a bouquet of flowers with a custom gift cardattached). Here the customer can, for example, design a gift cardaccording to their own customized graphics, uploaded images, text, andhand (e.g. driven by the customer's mouse, or finger movement on a touchsensitive screen) written drawings, script, and lettering. This may beimplemented by various computer software graphical packages and toolswith gift card interface (274) designed to be manipulated using thecustomer's computerized device. In one embodiment, these tools may bebased on methods previously discussed in copending application Ser. No.13/441,781, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.See FIG. 46 for more information.

When the customer then purchases (276) the product and the associatedgift card, the delivery merchant can then print out this handmadecustomer generated card and deliver it to the recipient along with theproduct/gift (278).

Upon payment processing, in some embodiments the system can then send anorder to the cloud server (100) that contains the necessary informationpertaining to the originating merchant, remote merchant, productinformation, promotional details, and the like.

Note that although it is contemplated that the bulk of the sales will bedone by customers interacting with the system using web browsers andapps using their network connected computerized devices, in someembodiments, it is also useful to provide a point-of-sale interface toallow the merchant to conduct the sale as well. This can be helpful, forexample, for when customers call or email, or for customers that may beshowing up in person at the merchant's store or other facility.

In a preferred embodiment, this point-of-sale interface can also be webbased, either as part of the administrator control panel, or as adifferent web interface. Here again it is often useful to have thispoint-of-sale work directly with the centralized database (106) as well.

For such point-of-sale interfaces, it is also useful to further provide,often as part of the product data, various types of product salesrecommendation information that is associated with at least some ofthese products. Thus for example, the point-of-sale interface can beconfigured to enable a merchant (or authorized clerk), to also providethis product sales recommendation information when the merchant is usingthe point-of-sale system. This product sales recommendation informationcan be short text messages such as “We are short on red flowers and havea surplus of yellow flowers, please recommend yellow flowerarrangements” or other data intended to remind or guide the merchant orclerk while operating the point-of-sales system. The merchant or clerkcan then discuss various possibilities with the client, and then enterthe relevant purchase data directly into the system via thepoint-of-sale interface. Thus the point-of-sale interface will generallybe a superset of the ecommerce customer interface, in that it may alsoshow some business proprietary or confidential information that mightnot normally be available to the average ecommerce customer.

To set up the system, merchants will generally login to theadministrator interface (114). This login process is shown in FIG. 3.FIG. 3 shows the finder screen, which is the system login page. In thisexample, the login page is also showing a brief graphic overview of thevarious merchant options that the system may make available to themerchant.

Returning to FIG. 1, in some embodiments, customers (e.g. 108) may use amerchant's (booking merchant's) ecommerce website (102-M1 a) to order aproduct for delivery outside of the merchant's (here merchant 1's)service area. Here, as previously discussed, the system can beconfigured to examine the recipient address, and recommend one or moreother merchants (such as merchant M2) that have service areas that coverthe recipient's address.

In the case where these remote merchants are participating in thesystem, then the system can automatically show the remote merchant'sproduct data and delivery data, and transmit orders directly to theother merchant's computer system. Here, for example, Customer (108)'sorder can best be filled by merchant 2, who runs his own participatingecommerce server (102-M1 a). The order information can thus betransmitted automatically (usually using a computer network such as theInternet) between merchant 1 and merchant 2 either using networkconnections to the centralized server(s) (100) and database (106), ordirectly between their respective ecommerce servers (102-M1 a) and(102-M2 a). The system can also automatically apply previouslynegotiated fee splits to this process so that merchant 1 receives abooking commission, and merchant 2 receives its part of the fees aswell.

In the event that the customer specifically elects a non-participatingmerchant, then the system can be designed with a manual order transferprocess so that non-participating merchants may also be handled, atleast with manual intervention.

FIG. 4 shows the merchant administration panel or interface (114) inmore detail, and also explains the various system functions that areavailable. As previously discussed, this administrator panel allows themerchant to access various functions such as managing orders, products,add-on products, quickly add products, set sale or promotionalactivities such as promo codes, view and rename categories, set up themerchant's website, and other functions.

FIG. 5 shows how the merchant, usually on initial setup, can select thesettings functions to upload the merchant's logo, set the merchant'sdelivery zones, set prices and payment information, and set variouspoint of sale (POS) options. The system allows the merchant to select iforders can be delivered by email or fax or directly to various point ofsale partners such as FTD, Teleflora, MAS (MASdirect, Dallas Tex., aprovider of point of sale/order entry software for the floral industry)and the like. For florist applications, the system also allows themerchant to select preferred florist partners to facilitate crossselling of various products. This option will be discussed in moredetail shortly.

FIG. 6 shows the merchant using the system settings to specify themerchant's logo, enter in the merchant's business name, description,contact information, address, and various standard fees and commissions.

The merchant can also enter in product information directly through theadministration panel (114) as desired. FIG. 7 shows how the merchant canuse the system to further edit the image, video, and other descriptionsfor a particular product. Additionally, as is shown in FIG. 8, themerchant can also enter in product pricing information and optionsthrough the administrator panel (114) as well. The merchant can use theinterface to enter in quite detailed product information, as needed. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 9, the merchant can show the exact flowersused in a particular flower arrangement.

Calendar or schedule based automatic website updates: As previouslydiscussed, the invention is based, in part, on the insight that for manylocal merchants of perishable products, a large fraction of thepurchases are predictable from a calendar time standpoint. Thisespecially true when delivery is part of the purchase, and when theproducts may be gifts. In particular, many purchases are based onimportant secular or religious holidays, such as Christmas, Hanukkah,New Years, Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year's, Easter, and the like.

During these times, in addition to updating the website to providevarious calendar or schedule specific products, it is often also usefulfor the merchant to at least partially customize other portions of theecommerce website for the occasion. This can be done using variousbanners and also various products or services related to these events.However doing this manually is very time consuming.

However because these events can be predicted in advance, and have aknown sequence and duration, in addition to automatically updating theproduct mix to fit the occasion, the invention can also automate othercalendar based web customizations as well. This can include bothfunction and appearance customization. Both can be done using thepreviously discussed schedule driven calendar. Automated schedule drivenappearance customization, for example, can be done using rapid bannercustomization tools that allow the merchant to automatically update themerchant's ecommerce website to switch its appearance according to apredetermined time schedule. Thus the merchant's ecommerce website canremain automatically current throughout the year with a minimal need forupdating.

By contrast, most merchant ecommerce websites in use today are static.However the gift industry, for example, is largely based on standardoccasions—mother's day, father's day, Valentine's Day, Christmas,thanksgiving, prom week, graduation day, and so on. These are typicallythe times when customers purchase flowers and other gifts for others,and these times in turn are driven by a calendar schedule.

Thus, for example, a local florist, knowing that prom week is coming upat a local high school, may have an incentive to update the florist'sweb site (e.g. various graphical banners on the website, and the like)to promote floral arrangements appropriate for a prom. Although, usingprior art techniques, some small merchants have the time, expertise, andresources to do this, others do not.

The invention provides a server platform upon which the merchant caneasily create a calendar based rules engine where the calendar date inturn drives changes in the merchant's website. For example, themerchant, knowing that valentine's day falls on February 14 of everyhear, and that Christmas falls on December 25 of every year, can designin advance ecommerce site graphics (e.g. banners) and optionallyproducts for these occasions, enter them into the calendar based rulesengine. The rules engine will in turn automatically update theappearance of the merchant's website with graphical elements (e.g.banners) and optionally event specific products with no further efforton the merchant's part.

Thus in this embodiment, the centralized database (106) or otherdatabases, such as other ecommerce specific databases) can also storevarious event specific notices such as the ecommerce site graphics, textbanners, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the product datacan also have various types of event specific product data. Thus as anexample, during the schedule times of product delivery (e.g. Valentine'sDay, Christmas, etc.), the system's processor can also configure thewebsite to display these various event specific notices (e.g. banners &other text or graphics). Generally it will be desirable to schedulethese event specific notices during time when event specific productsare available, of course, and the system may be designed to generallysynchronize these products and notices. However if for some reason, amerchant desires to supply Halloween products during Valentine's Day,the system may also be designed to accommodate non-time synchronizedscheduled products and event specific notices as well.

On a functional level, other functions, such product pricing, anddelivery fees, may also be time varied according to a previously enteredschedule, may also be done using these methods.

FIG. 10 shows how the merchant can use the system to quickly and easilyproduce various advertising banners that may be displayed on the websiteaccording to various predetermined schedules.

FIG. 11 shows how the system may store a variety of different merchantdesigned banners, and automatically switch to showing various banners onvarious days of the year. Here for example, the system shows aValentine's Day banner on Valentine's Day, a Chinese New Year banneraround the time of the Chinese New Year, and so on.

FIG. 12 shows how many different types of banners may be entered intothe system and configured to automatically display at various dates andtimes.

FIG. 13 shows how the merchant can modify the price as a function ofdate using the system's calendar function. Here the price of roses isaltered by 10% right after Valentine's Day.

FIG. 14 shows the merchant adding other calendar sensitive pricingmodifications to the calendar for various products.

The invention can further provide various graphical editing tools,either as previously discussed in copending application Ser. No.13/441,781 incorporated herein by reference, or other tools, to allowthe merchant to easily customize these banners as well. Here forexample, the merchant can simply use a web browser to upload a baseimage, type in the merchant' text script, edit with the system's graphicediting tools as needed, and create a new banner which can then be addedto the merchant's ecommerce site.

Thus the invention provides a calendar (schedule) based engine where thecalendar or other schedule can drive changes in the website on an annualbasis. More than one type of calendar can be used—for example inaddition to the standard Gregorian calendar, other calendars appropriateto the merchant's market, such as lunar calendars, various religiouscalendars, and the like can also be used.

Other embodiments of the invention provide other types of features aswell. Some of these other features include more precise time, day of theweek, and location based delivery cost estimations that can moreaccurately compute true merchant delivery costs in advance, and passthis knowledge to the customer so that the customer can make moreaccurate determinations as to what delivery options are most appropriatefor the customer's needs and budgets.

Sophisticated delivery cost estimation engine: As previously discussed,the invention is also based, in part, on the insight that particularlywith regards to local delivery; often the merchant's delivery costs arehighly variable depending on day, time of day, and exact geographicallocation of the merchant and the recipient. Prior art ecommerce servicesdo not sufficiently keep track of such costs, with the results that, forexample for the florist industry, a florist that has had to accept anorder with an unrealistically low delivery cost may be tempted to atleast partially recoup the extra delivery costs by substituting acheaper product, such as a less expensive bouquet, to the mutualdissatisfaction of everyone. The invention further provides a high levelof customization that allows the merchant to precisely dial in thesetime and location variable delivery costs, and factor these costs in forthe purchaser, so that the purchaser can make intelligent purchasingdecisions that reduce the incentive make up for unrealistic deliverycosts by substituting lower quality products.

Such a feature can be important because local merchants who also delivertheir products have to contend with many different issues. Althoughprior art systems often based delivery fees on merely the distancetraveled, in fact the problems are more complex than this. For example,in addition to distance, location and time of day are also major factorsin delivery expenses. For example, the time required to deliver aproduct in a city can vary greatly depending on if it is rush hour ornot.

As another example, if a florist gets an order and gets a $10 deliveryfee to deliver to downtown San Francisco in the financial district at10:00 AM, the florist will usually have to send two people in a car. Oneperson drives the car and circles around the block while the otherdelivers the flowers. So the merchant will end up spending $30-$40 forthis $10 delivery fee. So on a transaction basis, using prior artmethods, the florist will lose money on the deal unless the floristsubstitutes a lower cost and inferior product to at least partiallyrecoup the delivery fee losses.

To better cope with issues like this, the invention can allow themerchant to designate certain geographic areas and times as being extrafee cases. Further, the invention's delivery fee determinationalgorithms can also take into account other factors such as fluctuationsin gas prices, merchant's expected overall profit margin on the deal,distance, location and the like to more realistically calculate truedelivery costs and make this information available to the purchaser atthe time of purchase. This way, for example, a purchaser may decide thatrather than paying a huge amount to deliver flowers to a recipientlocated in the San Francisco financial district during rush hour, therecipient might rather send a fancier bouquet of flowers to therecipient's suburban home address at some time other than rush hour. Byexposing true costs on the merchant's ecommerce website, moreintelligent decisions can be made, and overall satisfaction of allparties involved can be improved.

FIG. 15 shows how the merchant use the system settings to specify themerchant's days and times of standard delivery service, as well asextended days and hours of delivery service for additional charges.

FIG. 16 shows how the merchant can also select countries or othergeographical areas of service (e.g. US/Canada) using a pull down menu.

Rapid addition of new products to the ecommerce site using smartphonesand ecommerce assistance apps: As previously discussed, the invention isalso based, in part, on the insight that many local merchants arecreative and innovative individuals who often have both the desire andability to come up with various creative variations on otherwisestandard products. However due to the cumbersome nature of present dayecommerce systems, the burden on the local merchant to customize themerchant's website to adequately showcase what otherwise might be aspontaneous creation tends to inhibit this creativity. For example,again using the floral industry as an example, a local florist may comeup with a creative and cost effective new floral arrangement in a fewminutes, but if the burden of advertising the new floral arrangement onthe florist's ecommerce website is hours of work, then that new floralarrangement will never see the light of day. In another embodiment, theinvention utilizes modern smartphone or mobile computerized tablettechnology to provide easy to use apps that, in conjunction with theinvention's calendar oriented server based platform, allow such amerchant to create a new product listing, complete with photographs, ina matter of a few minutes.

FIG. 17 shows how the merchant can use a smartphone or tablet app tophotograph a product (such as a floral arrangement) and quickly uploadthe photo to the system where the uploaded product photo can be rapidlyincorporated into the merchant's online ecommerce site. Here the user isinitializing the smartphone app

FIG. 18 shows how after the merchant has taken several photographs ofthe product, the merchant can then use the app to choose which photos touse from the smartphone or tablets photo album.

FIG. 19 shows the merchant looking through the smartphone's or tablet'sphoto album to find the best photo to upload for that particularproduct.

FIG. 20 shows that the merchant has selected the best photo from thephoto album, and now can upload it to the system.

FIG. 21 shows that the merchant can also use the tablet or smartphoneapp to enter in a partial or full description of the product associatedwith the photo.

FIG. 22 shows the merchant now has used the smartphone or tablet app toboth select the product photo and enter in other product information.

FIG. 23 shows that the merchant has now uploaded the product photo anddescription to the system.

FIG. 24 shows the main system interface by which the merchant can nowinteract with the uploaded product photo and description.

FIG. 25 shows the product photo and description that was previouslyuploaded by the merchant from their smartphone or tablet app. Themerchant may further adjust the photo or product description using themain system interface as desired.

Easy formation of ecommerce networks with other participating merchants:As previously discussed, the invention is also based, in part, on theinsight that local merchants often need to cooperate either with otherlocal merchants or artisans, or with more distant merchants andartisans. For example, a local florist and a local baker may find itadvantageous to cross promote each other's products and services on eachother's websites so that, for example, a purchaser who wishes to send agift of flowers could also have a cake delivered at the same time, andvice versa. Additionally, again using the floral industry as an example,more distant florists may wish to join forces to form their own networkof connected floral services that can operate with little or noadditional overhead (i.e. little or no middleman fees). Such low costnetworks of otherwise local merchants can often operate quiteefficiently due to the lack of middleman fees. At the same time, byjoining forces, a merchant, such as a florist, in one area of thecountry can send business to another merchant (i.e. another florist) inanother area of the country, pocket a decent commission for this, yetwithout middleman fees, enough money remains that the distant merchantcan still provide a high quality requested product at a satisfactoryprofit margin as well. In another embodiment, the invention alsoprovides an easy to implement system and method to allow formation ofsuch cooperative networks. As a result, everyone, purchaser, firstmerchant, second merchant, and recipient is more likely to be satisfieddue to the high efficiency and lack of middleman costs of the system.

Thus in another embodiment of the invention, the invention's internetbased server platform is designed to allow merchants to easily formnetworks that allow them to automatically transfer orders to otherpreferred networks without paying any additional costs or overhead. Thesystem may additionally implement a backup order system to non-preferredmerchants using conventional fax, email, phone or SMS messages as well.

To elaborate, for the gifts industry, often customers wish to contact alocal merchant and have the local merchant in turn work with a moredistant affiliate merchant to deliver gifts, for example in a distantcity and country. Here the cost structures should be appreciated. To dothis, the local merchant will desire to have some commission, and ofcourse the distant merchant, who will also wish to make a decent profitafter delivery charges are factored in, will also desire to make aprofit. Any additional funding drain from the system, for example to aweb based middle man service, will end up decreasing merchant profit, ordecreasing the value of the gift. Thus in another embodiment of theinvention, the invention allows participating merchants to set up theirown zero or at least low transaction fee network in which merchants canaccept orders from customers, and relay the order to other moreappropriately located merchants, with the assurance that the order willbe carried out appropriately and that the profit margins and quality ofthe gift will not suffer.

FIG. 26 shows how the merchant, again in the settings section, can alsoadd a network link to another preferred florist.

FIG. 27 shows the merchant continuing to add additional florists to thatmerchant's own preferred florist network, thus building up a uniquenetwork of favored florist partners.

FIG. 28 shows the merchant now operating the sell my products (SMP)section to enter in information about that merchant's products. In someembodiments, this information can then be automatically transferred toanother merchant's website when needed. For example, with regards toFIG. 1, if merchant M2 enters some of his products into the system, thenthis information may automatically be made available to merchant M1 whenneeded.

The invention's sell my product (SMP) option also allows non-merchantartisans, who may produce complementary products, but who do not wish tosell them directly to the public, to also network in with willingmerchant and display the artisan's products as well, even though theartisan does not have its own merchant website or store.

FIG. 29 shows a close up of the orders portion of the system.

FIG. 30 shows how the merchant can review the system record of themerchant's various outgoing orders

FIG. 31 shows how the merchant can review the system record of variouspending orders.

FIG. 32 shows how the initiating merchant can adjust how the variouspending orders are transmitted to the recipient merchant. Here variousoptions such as transmit by fax, email, electronic transfer to theflorist via the system, or transfer to an outside system (such asMASdirect, Dallas, Tex.) can be selected using a drop down menu.

FIG. 33 shows the initiating merchant electing to have the systemtransfer the pending order to the recipient merchant via the system'selectronic transfer to florist option.

FIG. 34 shows that the initiating merchant can also set a time limit inwhich to transfer the order to the recipient merchant.

FIG. 35 shows the merchant here instructing the system that it mustreceive confirmation from the recipient merchant within 30 minutes ofplacing the order, or else timeout.

FIG. 36 shows the merchant products configuration interface.

FIG. 37 shows the merchant adjusting the SMP (sell my products price)pricing for their various floral arrangements.

FIG. 38 shows the merchant further adjusting the SMP (sell my productsprice) pricing for their various floral arrangements.

FIG. 39 shows the initiating merchant updating the system to show afloral arrangement that is provided by a partner receiving merchant,along with pricing information.

FIG. 40 shows the merchant updating more information about the product,here entering in a brief description from a drop down menu.

FIG. 41 shows the merchant now updating the price for the new product.

In addition to allowing groups of like but geographically distantmerchants form networks, the system also allows different butcomplementary and geographically close merchants to form usefulecommerce networks as well. A good example is shown in FIG. 42, whichshows a merchant website showing cross promotions from other local butcomplementary merchants. In the FIG. 42 example, the merchant, who is aflorist, is showing complementary services from local ribbons, balloonsstuffed bear, and bakery merchants. None of these other local merchantscompete with the florist, but all sell mutually complementary productswhich are often sold together. The invention allows such relatedmerchants to also form useful networks as well.

FIG. 42 shows how the merchant may additionally work with other localmerchants and artisans to cross promote their products. Thus a buyerbrowsing a florist's site might also see advertisements from a localbakery for a cake, and decide to also send a gift chocolate cake to therecipient along with the flowers.

In some embodiments, entire networks of such artisans can use theinventions to form their own associations and market through a virtualmerchant. Here the virtual merchant can be, for example, an art or winefestival that has registered on the invention's website as a merchant.This can allow, for example, for aggregations of local artists (e.g.painters and sculptors and the like to group together, with localmerchants as desired, and easily promote ongoing virtual “art fairs” andthe like.

No purchaser effort promotional code system: The invention is furtherbased on the insight that prior art mechanisms of providing promotionalcodes for purchases are too cumbersome. According to prior art, if acompany such as Intel received a group promotional code for a discountoff of purchases, the employees of the company would have to obtain thepromotional code and enter it in to receive discounts. However accordingto the invention's improved methods, the invention's ecommerce webserver can optionally link promotions with the URL or email address fromwhich the product purchase had originated. The system can then use theproduct purchase URL or email address to automatically assignpromotional discounts, thus reducing purchaser effort. These promotionaldiscounts may either be discounts on product price, discounts onshipping costs, or both. These promotional discounts may also be limitedby various constraints, such expiring after a preset number of products,and the like.

FIG. 43 shows the system's promotion interface in more detail. Herethere is one promotion presently running, and the merchant is in theprocess of adding another promotion.

FIG. 44 shows the merchant adding additional information about the nextpromotion to the system's promotion interface.

FIG. 45 shows that the merchant has now added another promotion to theinterface. Here the promotion is for the company Intel, and the systemautomatically gives the promotion to all employees who access the systemfrom the Intel domain, or provide an intel.com email address.

Recipient delivery and gift customization: The invention is also based,in part, on the insight that although many such local merchant ecommercebased purchases will be for gifts for others, often such gifts need notbe surprise gifts. When such gifts are not surprise gifts, it can oftenbe further desirable to give the gift recipient at least some advancenotice of the gift, as well as at least some ability to modify the timethat the gift arrives, and even potentially modify the nature of thegift. Thus for example, a recipient of flowers may be able to redirectthe time or day of arrival to a more appropriate time or day of arrival,thus ensuring that the flowers arrive when the recipient is not onvacation. Alternatively a recipient of a gift for a first flavor or typeof cake might modify the cake to a more preferred type or flavor. Inanother embodiment, the invention also provides for such an ability tonotify the recipient electronically, and to allow at least partialmodification of the gift by, for example, going to the local merchant'swebsite and selecting various alternative delivery or gift type options.

Easy customer gift card customization: As previously discussed, theinvention is further based on the insight that at least with regards togifts; often the gift recipient values the thought (i.e. affection, goodintentions) behind the gift as much or more than the gift itself.However present industry practice of only providing standardized giftcard designs somewhat defeats this purpose.

The invention further provides an easy to use user interface that allowsthe purchaser of the gift to custom design the art behind the gift cardsdelivered with the gifts, thus further providing evidence of thepurchasers thought behind the gift to the recipient, and furtherenhancing the mutual satisfaction of both the gift giver and recipient.See FIG. 46 for further discussion.

The merchant can additionally upsell this function for an extra fee(i.e. $5.00), and make more money this way as well. This adds value.

Additional Discussion and Features

As previously discussed, in some embodiments, the invention allows thecustomer to specify if the gift for the recipient is to be a surprisegift or not. In the case where the gift is not a surprise gift, thesystem allows the recipient to modify the gift or delivery schedule.Here the system can send the recipient gets an email link notifying therecipient of the gift, and allowing the recipient to modify the deliveryarrangement (within the price range), and delivery date.

In other embodiments, the system can also enable multiple customers topool their funds and enable group purchases. Here, the system allows aninitiating customer to specify the initial order, and also invite otherparticipants to contribute as well. As more contribute, the size or costof the gift can increase—for example a more elaborate floral arrangementcan be automatically ordered and scaled according to the total amount ofcontributions.

In another embodiment of the invention, various smartphone or tabletapps, which can be fully customized to integrate the previouslydiscussed “Sell My Product” (SMP) functionality has also been developed.The flow and functionality of such smartphone apps are essentiallyidentical to the previously discussed web applications above.

Sequencing and ordering of categories of products for display on the weband smartphone apps: The order in which various products are displayedin the web browser implemented version or smartphone implemented versionof the invention can be done by various methods. In one preferredmethod, this sequencing can be done by implementing visual drag and dropfunctionality. Alternatively, the sequencing may be done by othermethods such as inputting numeric sequence numbers, alphabetically, byprice, by category, and the like.

In some embodiments of the system, the following features may beimplemented, such as:

The e-commerce platform may be a cloud based platform with associatedmobile Apps. Important features can include 1) a cloud-based website andproduct detail/image storage system with universal mobile deviceintegration; 2) a photo-grabber that auto-loads images with associatedinformation to your website and mobile app anywhere, anytime; 3) anorder transmission module that allows member merchants to sell anothermerchant's products at that merchant's prices and delivery fees; 4) agreeting cards module customizable with consumer's image, message,signature, etc.; 5) an automated funds transfer module for credit cardpayments and commission settlement; 6) an administrative panelaccessible anywhere, anytime, using any web-connected device;

The system can additionally provide other features and functionsincluding a cloud-hosted system with intrinsic security, PCI credit cardcompliance, and redundant data storage; and an ability to capture andupload new images, or use existing images with the options for sharingwith other members.

In some embodiments, the entire platform may be based on a core centraldatabase that drives all channels of commerce. The invention can includevarious main modules such as:

1. Network Module—Merchants who populate the central database withproducts. This can include an administration panel that merchants canuse to manage the look and feel of web sites. Alternatively oradditionally, the administration panel and various mobile Apps canmanage all aspects of product placement and pricing.2. The system can also include WebService REST API with Location basedtechnology. This type of API is used by websites, mobile Apps and Pointof Sale software systems. This can be optionally used in conjunctionwith merchant oriented mobiles apps such as an image upload/productupload app that will be discussed shortly, and Point of Sale apps forthe merchant's in-store use, the system can also make use of otherconsumer facing mobile apps such as gift apps. Data obtained with thislocation based API can also be very useful to store, along with productpurchase data, for subsequent various sales tracking and market researchactivities.

The system can also include other modules such as a Sell My Productsmodule, Custom Greeting Cards module, Order transfer module and thelike.

As previously discussed, an additional feature of the invention is itsMerchant Network. Additionally, in some embodiments, merchants mayregister for accounts at an administration site. The administration sitemay provide a control panel or dashboard that allows completeconfiguration and management of the website and smart phone Apps.

In general, as previously discussed, the system's administration panelcan be used to manage the merchant's products, promotion and coupons.Any changes or edits made at the panel will be reflected on the website.For example, the merchant can also add/remove products, and renamecategories for special seasonal events. The merchant can thus managemany aspects of the business from setting delivery zones to managingsame day delivery.

As previously discussed, the system settings function to allow themerchant to upload the merchant's logo, set delivery zones, prices andpayment information. Other functions include setting the merchant'sPoint of Sale (POS) software options. Merchant orders can be deliveredby email/fax or directly to a POS partner. The merchant can also selectvarious preferred merchant partners to facilitate affiliate salesthrough the system's “Sell My Products” module and also transfer ordersreceived to other merchants who are members/registered on the network

Other functions include options to setup merchant delivery coverageareas, zip codes, geographic regions and the like. The system allowsmerchants to manage web site banners, promo codes, delivery schedulesand pricing. Many of these settings and configurations can be furtherbased on the merchant's business calendar and schedule.

Additionally, as previously discussed, the system allows the merchant toset up a network of preferred partner merchants. Once these are set up,the merchant and system may then transfer orders automatically using thesystem's “Sell My Products” module. The system also allows all ordersreceived through multiple channels to be tracked, including order'sreceived using the system's Smart Phone App and the Web (site) App.

As previously discussed, the invention further allows the merchant toreview products, make edits as needed at any time and the changes willbe reflected on all channels. The system also allows the merchant toexport the merchant's product database, and set dynamic pricing based ona calendar schedule.

In some embodiments, additional functions may further include an abilityto sell Add-on Products, as well as to view, and make changes to variousadd-on/accessory products. Additionally, additional functions such asQuick Add, which allows the merchant to search and add products to otherproduct categories, as well as to convert products from other membermerchants to use on the merchant's own website/app. Other functions mayinclude:

Add Product: Add a new product, set prices, upgrade options and upload aproduct image. Filter products for the mobile apps.

Sale/promotions: Create multiple promo codes. Automatic discounts/promocodes tied to a company's domain name

Categories: View and rename categories based on a calendar schedule.Categories can be turned off based on a schedule.

In some embodiments, the invention may further make use of locationbased technology. This can take into account the buyer's location, therecipient's location and the merchant's location, and factor these intoaccount in computing delivery charges. This data can also be stored,along with the product sales data, for subsequent sales tracking andmarket research purposes.

In one embodiment of such location based technology, a buyer may accessthe website using a web browser. The system may use the buyer's IPaddress to compute a corresponding geographical address, (GeographicalIP, GeoIP). This can then be translated to latitude & longitudecoordinates, and mapped to a zip code and street address. Once thestreet address is known, the software can determine all merchants withina given mile radius, thus allowing the buyer to select a merchant ofinterest. Alternatively a buyer may access an app using a smart phone.In this case, with permission, the system can use the smartphone's GPScoordinates to determine the buyer's location:

WebService API—In some embodiments, the system may use a comprehensiveset of web service calls to support its various location based commerceschemes. These can also be used to communicate order information withpayment gateways and point of sale software systems.

As previously discussed, in some embodiments of the “Sell My Products”functionality—the seller may not have its own website. Instead, anymerchant or service provider can upload their products or services forsale by other member merchant. The system allows the merchant to uploadthese products or services; set pricing and set other items such aspreferred commission splits.

This module may also be used to build a primary merchant's localmarketplace where local merchants can be aggregated. Example caninclude, flowers, cakes, party supplies etc.

Custom Gift Cards—As previously discussed, in some embodiments, buyerscan access a library of images or upload personal images and doodledirectly on the image to create a custom gift card. The gift card can beprinted in the recipient's location by the delivering merchant (whichmay be a remote merchant) prior to delivery of the product.

FIG. 46 shows more details of this custom gift card process. Here adatabase, such as the centralized database (106), can contain data forvarious gift card template images, graphic images, and text fonts.Indeed, to minimize royalties as well as to encourage merchant artisticexpression, the system may also provide an interface, such as a webbrowser based administrator webpage, to allow the merchant or otheradministrator to upload additional gift card template images or graphicimages as well. The ecommerce customer may also upload images.

In some embodiments, the gift card interface will appear only after theecommerce customer has made a product selection, but before the finalpurchase is done (see FIG. 2C-272). If the customer elects the gift cardoption (which will often cost extra), the system outputs a gift cardgeneration interface to the ecommerce computerized device (often to aweb browser) (274).

Returning to FIG. 46, the gift card generation interface appearing onthe ecommerce customer's computerized device is shown as (108 a). As canbe seen, this gift card generation interface is configured to allow thecustomer to select various gift card template images or graphic images,enter text to be rendered using various text fonts, as well as sketchdrawings or handwriting on the card using a mouse touch sensitiveinterface, or the like. The output from this creation process can be anelectronic gift card file which can be transmitted back to either server(102-M1 a) and/or centralized server (100). Thus once the customerpurchases the product, this electronic gift card file can be transmittedto a printer (134) associated with the product's shipping location (herethis is Merchant 2's printer). This printer (134) can them print out theactual hard copy gift card (136). The system can also instruct Merchant2, for example, to then bundle this card (136) with the product (130 b)and deliver both to the recipient (132 b) at the same time and location.Thus for example, the recipient can get a nice bouquet of flowers withan attached customized greeting card. Unlike the flowers which willquickly fade, the card can last forever, and will be more highly valuedbecause it is customized.

Although various types of software may be used to create the customizedgreeting card, as previously discussed, in some embodiments the methodsof commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/441,781,the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference, maybe used.

In this embodiment, gift card generation interface can be configured toload previously stored gift card template images on a remote server(e.g. 100, 102-M1 a) thus creating an image layer, and to then transmitan HTML copy of this image layer to the customer's web browser or app.There they can view this image layer, and use their web browser or appto both annotate the images, as well as to transmit an HTML copy ofthese annotations to the remote server.

The remote server can then use these annotations to create at least oneannotation layer, and combining this with the image layer, create anannotated gift card document image. This annotated gift card documentimage can then be transmitted back to the customer, where they canaccept (or modify) this annotated gift card document image. Onceaccepted, this image can then be transmitted to the printer (134) in theform of an electronic gift card file.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, either instead of or in addition toprinting out a physical hard copy of the gift card (136), the system canalso send an electronic version of the gift card to the recipient (132b) or other individuals, for example in the form of email.

Order transfer module—Merchants can view orders received and selectivetransfer them by email, fax or electronically to another merchantglobally as long as the other merchant are a member. The transferprotocol can also support a time based threshold to facilitateacceptance or rejection.

Cloning automatically customized websites, and search engineoptimization

In the modern world, where customers do large amounts searching forproducts using search engines such as Google, Bing, and the like, localmerchants often find themselves in an intense if hidden value for onlinepresence and good search engine ranking. To facilitate this, merchantsoften acquire multiple website domains (e.g. flowerstuff.com,flowerstuff.net, flowerstuff.org, myflowerstuff.com,localflowerstuff.com etc.), and then have these domains forwarded to themerchant's main ecommerce website. Search engines, however, are aware ofthis trick, and are designed to ignore such domain forwarding.

In some embodiments of the invention, the system may also be design toaccommodate a plurality of commonly controlled (e.g. all owned by thesame merchant, websites such as FIG. 1 websites/servers (102-M1 a and102-M1 b). These “different” (but commonly controlled) ecommercewebsites will generally have a plurality of commonly controlled URL, butgenerally at least some of these commonly controlled websites will befocused serving on different geographical regions or other differenttypes of local groups. For example Merchant M1 may focus website (102-M1a) on serving a first town, and website 102-M1 b on serving aneighboring town only a few miles away (also within his geographicservice area). An example of this embodiment is shown in more detail inFIG. 47.

In this embodiment, the centralized database (106) can also storegeographic region or other type customized data for at least some ofthese websites (e.g. commonly controlled ecommerce websites focused ondifferent geographic regions). The geographic region customized data canbe as simple data with location specific names and graphics (e.g.“Milpitas Flowers”, “Fremont Flowers”). The system may also beconfigured so that this geographic region (or other type) customizeddata may be further managed from a web browser based administratorwebpage, often the same administrator web page used to administer othersystem functions (114).

Thus, instead of just producing one website composed of various dynamicsections, the system may be configured to produce multiple websites(e.g. 102-M1 a, 102-M1 b) composed of the same various dynamic sectionsas before, but then additionally customized by the geographic region (orother type) customized data. Thus an ecommerce customer (108 m) from theCalifornia city of Milpitas might contact website (102-M1 a) (sayMilpitasflowers.com) and, due to the geographic region customizationdata, receive a Milpitas customized website. By contrast, an ecommercecustomer (108 f) from the nearby city of Fremont might contact website(102-M1 b) and, again due to the geographic region customization data,receive a Fremont customized website. However both websites would becontrolled by the same merchant, and be served by the same merchant(M1). After the initial geographic customization was done, this wouldrequire almost no effort on the merchant's part replicate one dynamicwebsite (with automated customization) to become multiple websites.

However the search engines (470), instead of seeing a redirectedwebsite, will in this example see two independent dynamic but regioncustomized websites, and thus tend to rank both websites higher in thesearch engine results. This search engine optimization process may befurther facilitated by exposing at least some of this geographic region(or other type) customized data to the search engines using schemasrecognized by said search engines. Useful search engine schemas mayinclude microdata tags, first introduced in HTML5. These may followschema.org formats, or other formats as desired.

Note again that the geographic automatic localization is intended to bea specific example, and is not otherwise intended to be limiting.Websites could just as easily be customized to appeal to young or oldcustomers left handed or right handed customers, customers who belong tovarious special interest groups, and the like. Any automaticcustomization scheme is contemplated.

Posting to Social Networks

In some embodiments, the system may also be configured to allow amerchant to automatically post updates (such as the introduction of newproducts) to various online social networks such as Facebook, twitter,Pinterest, and the like. In this embodiment, often the centralizeddatabase (106) will store links to various social networks of interest,as well as the merchant's login information to the various socialnetworks of interest.

In this embodiment, depending on system settings, when the merchantuploads a change to the merchant's product data, either the centralizedserver (100) or individual merchant ecommerce servers (e.g. 102-M1 a)can automatically transmit information pertaining to these productchanges to the various selected social network websites. Additionally,these postings can also be calendar/schedule driven so that the merchantcan plan and schedule a variety of different postings ahead of time.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method of managing at least one scheduledriven dynamic layout ecommerce website for at least one merchant, saidmethod comprising: using at least one processor, centralized database,centralized database server, and automated website creation software toconfigure at least one schedule driven dynamic layout ecommerce website,said at least one ecommerce website comprising at least some web pageswith dynamic sections, said at least one ecommerce website hosted byeither said centralized database server or alternative ecommerce websiteservers; wherein at least some said dynamic sections are associated withcorresponding product and product data, said product data comprisingproduct description, product price, product shipping locations, scheduletimes of product availability at said product shipping locations andproduct inventory data at said product shipping locations; said productdata additionally linked to product delivery time and locationconstraints relative to at least one said product shipping location;said product delivery time and location constraints comprising productdelivery charge and surcharge information for certain delivery times andlocations relative to said at least one product shipping location; saidproduct data and product delivery time and location constraints beingstored in said centralized database, and wherein said product data andsaid product delivery time and location constraints are entered orupdated using a network connected computerized device running either aweb browser based administrator webpage or mobile app; for each dynamicsection associated with said corresponding product, using said at leastone processor to examine said product data for schedule times of productavailability and determine if said product is available and ininventory, and if, during said schedule times, said product is availableand in inventory, then configuring said at least one ecommerce websiteto display at least some data from said dynamic sections associated withsaid corresponding ecommerce product on at least one web page of said atleast one ecommerce website, and otherwise not displaying data from saiddynamic sections associated with said corresponding ecommerce product;wherein in response to a product purchase request comprising a productidentifier and a requested delivery location and delivery time from anecommerce customer interacting with said at least one ecommerce websiteusing an ecommerce computerized device running an ecommerce customer webbrowser or app, using said at least one processor to determine said atleast one product shipping location, examine said product delivery timeand location constraints relative to said at least one product shippinglocation, and use said requested delivery location and delivery timerelative to said at least one product shipping location to computeproduct delivery charges and surcharges for said product, and display atleast a sum of said product delivery charges or surcharges for saidproduct on said at least one ecommerce website; wherein when saidecommerce customer purchases said product using said ecommerce website,using said at least one processor to record the sale of said product,said product shipping location, changes in product inventory data atsaid product shipping location, requested product delivery time andrequested delivery location in said centralized database; and using saidat least one processor to transmit notification of the sale of saidproduct to said ecommerce customer, as well as to at least onecomputerized device associated with distribution of product from saidproduct shipping location.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein saidschedule times of product availability vary according to calendar eventdates comprising repeating holidays and time predictable events; whereinsaid centralized database further comprises at least one of eventspecific notices; or said product data further comprises event specificproduct data; further, during said schedule times of productavailability, using said at least one processor to configure saidecommerce website to display said event specific notices or eventspecific product data when said schedule times of product availabilitycorrespond to calendar event dates.
 3. The method of claim 1, furtherusing said at least one processor to configure said ecommerce website toprovide a gift card generation interface to create electronic gift carddata files associated with a product selected by said ecommercecustomer; wherein said centralized database further comprises aplurality of gift card template images, graphic images, and text fonts;further providing, on said web browser based administrator webpage, aninterface to allow said administrator to upload additional gift cardtemplate images or graphic images to said centralized database; whereinsaid ecommerce customer interacts with said ecommerce website and makesat least one product purchase using said ecommerce customer web browseror app; further using said at least one processor to provide, after saidat least one product purchase request, a gift card generation interfaceon said ecommerce customer web browser or app; said gift card generationinterface configured to allow said ecommerce customer to select saidgift card template images or graphic images, or enter text to berendered using said text fonts, thereby enabling said ecommerce customerto generate an electronic gift card file; using said at least oneprocessor to receive said electronic gift card file; where upon purchaseof said at least one product selected by said ecommerce customer, usingsaid at least one processor to transmit said electronic gift card fileto a printer associated with said product shipping location, andprinting out a gift card corresponding to said electronic gift cardfile; and further using said at least one processor to provideinstructions to bundle said gift card with said product for subsequentdelivery at said requested delivery location.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein said gift card generation interface is configured to direct saidat least one processor to load previously stored gift card templateimages on either said centralized server or said ecommerce website webserver, creating an image layer, and transmitting an HTML copy of saidimage layer to said ecommerce customer web browser or app; viewing saidimage layer within said ecommerce customer web browser or app; usingsaid ecommerce customer web browser or app to annotate said images,transmitting an HTML copy of said annotations to either said centralizedserver or said ecommerce website web server; using said annotations ateither said centralized server or said ecommerce website web server tocreate at least one annotation layer, and combining said at least oneannotation layer with said image layer producing an annotated gift carddocument image; transmitting an HTML copy of said annotated gift carddocument image to said ecommerce customer web browser or app; and usingsaid ecommerce customer web browser or app to accept said annotated giftcard document image; and using said at least one processor to transmitsaid annotated gift card document image in the form of said electronicgift card file to a printer associated with said product shippinglocation.
 5. The method of claim 1, further using said at least oneprocessor and said centralized database to provide a web basedpoint-of-sale interface; wherein said product data further comprisesproduct sales recommendation information associated with at least someof said products; said point-of-sale interface configured to enable saidat least one merchant's authorized ecommerce clerk to use an internetconnected computerized device to retrieve said product data, along withsaid product sales recommendations associated with at least some of saidproducts, and use said product sales recommendation information tomanually provide information to said ecommerce customer; saidpoint-of-sale interface further configured to enable said authorizedecommerce clerk to use said at least one processor to determine said atleast one product shipping location, examine said product delivery timeand location constraints relative to said at least one product shippinglocation, and use said requested delivery location and delivery timerelative to said at least one product shipping location to computeproduct delivery surcharges for said product; said point-of-saleinterface further configured to enable said authorized ecommerce clerkto purchase said product for said ecommerce customer; wherein when saidauthorized ecommerce clerk purchases said product for said ecommercecustomer using said point-of-sale interface, further using said at leastone processor to record said product sale, said product shippinglocation, changes in product inventory data at said at least one productshipping location, product delivery time and location in saidcentralized database; and using said at least one processor to transmitnotification of said product sale to said ecommerce customer and atleast one computerized device associated with said product shippinglocation.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein said least one ecommercewebsite comprises a plurality of commonly controlled ecommerce websiteswith a plurality of commonly controlled URL, at least some of saidcommonly controlled ecommerce websites focused on different geographicalregions; wherein said centralized database further comprises geographicregion customized data for at least some of said commonly controlledecommerce websites focused on different geographic regions; wherein saidgeographic region customized data may be further managed from said webbrowser based administrator webpage; wherein, when for each dynamicsection associated with a corresponding ecommerce product, using said atleast one processor to examine said product data and determine if saidproduct is available and in inventory, and if said product is availableand in inventory, then also configuring said at least some of saidcommonly controlled ecommerce websites to also display said dynamicsections associated with said corresponding ecommerce product, alongwith said geographic region customized data on at least some of the webpages of said at least one dynamic layout ecommerce website.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, further making at least some of said geographicregion customized data available to search engines by exposing at leastsome of said geographic region customized data to said search enginesusing schemas recognized by said search engines.
 8. The method of claim6, wherein said schemas comprise HTML5 or greater microdata tags.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said centralized database further compriseslinks and merchant login information to at least one merchant's socialnetwork website; wherein, when said at least one merchant changes saidproduct data, using said at least one processor and said links andmerchant login information to said at least one merchant's socialnetwork website to automatically transmit information pertaining to saidchanges to said at least one merchant's social network website.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said at least one merchant comprises aplurality of cooperating merchants, each carrying at least some commonproducts or commonly configurable products; further using said at leastone processor to transmit product purchase requests received from afirst ecommerce website under first merchant control by a first merchantto a second ecommerce website under second merchant control by a secondmerchant; wherein said second ecommerce website serves a geographic areacloser to said requested delivery location than the geographic areaserved by said first ecommerce website; wherein each said merchant hasuploaded product data and product delivery time and location constraintsfor their respective locations to said centralized database; furtherusing said centralized database to use said product data and saidproduct time and delivery constraints uploaded by said second merchantto examine said product delivery time and location constraints relativeto said at least one product shipping location relative to said secondmerchant, and use said requested delivery location and delivery timerelative to said at least one product shipping location relative to saidsecond merchant to compute product delivery surcharges for said product,and display said product delivery surcharges for said product on said atleast one ecommerce website under first merchant control by said firstmerchant.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein said product data furthercomprises time varying product price modifiers, said time varyingproduct price modifiers configured to vary according to a merchantdetermined predetermined schedule, and entered into said centralizeddatabase through said web browser based administrator web page.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein said product data further comprises productpromotional price data or product delivery promotional data, andpromotional trigger data; wherein when said ecommerce website receivespromotional trigger data from said ecommerce customer, said at least oneprocessor uses either said product promotional price data or saidproduct promotional delivery data to modify either said product price orsaid product delivery charges or surcharges for said product.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, further storing a history of product purchases insaid centralized database; further using said at least one processor toanalyze and report said history of product purchases according tomerchant selected analysis criteria.
 14. The method of claim 1, whereinsaid product data is entered using a mobile app configured to run on asmartphone or network connected tablet computer equipped with a userinterface and at least one video camera; said mobile app configured touse said at least one video camera to obtain at least one of eitherimages or video of a product; said mobile app further configured to usesaid user interface to obtain at least some other product data, andupload at least one of either images or video of said product to saidcentralized database.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein saidcentralized database and at least one processor are configured in anadministration server, and said administration server is configured touse said at least one processor to use said centralized database tomodify ecommerce software running on a plurality of different websites,and to transmit product purchase data between said plurality ofdifferent websites.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein saidadministration server serves said web browser based administratorwebpage.
 17. The method of claim 1, wherein said method furthercomprises an computerized ecommerce method for allowing an ecommercecustomer to order gifts from at least one merchant and deliver saidgifts to at least one recipient; said merchant having a merchantgeographic location, and said at least one recipient having at least onerecipient geographic location; said method further comprising: at leastone web server running ecommerce software; calendar based automaticecommerce website updates; a delivery cost estimation algorithm based ondate, time of day, and said merchant geographic location, and said atleast one recipient geographic location; wherein said merchant mayconfigure said ecommerce software by uploading photos or video and/or adescription of said product using a smartphone running an ecommerceuploading app; wherein said merchant may further configure saidecommerce software to form network connections with other merchants,transfer orders for gifts to said other merchants, and receive ordersfor gifts from said other merchants.
 18. The method of claim 1, whereinsaid merchants are florists, and wherein said products are floralarrangements.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein said centralizeddatabase further comprises at least one event specific notice; eachevent specific notice comprising graphics, video, or text to bedisplayed on one or more web pages produced by said ecommerce website,along with an event specific notice schedule giving at least the day ordays on which said event specific notice is to be displayed on said oneor more web pages automatically produced by said ecommerce website;further using said at least one processor to configure said ecommercewebsite to automatically display said at least one event specific noticeon one or more web pages produced by said ecommerce website according tosaid event specific notice schedule.
 20. The method of claim 19, whereinsaid event specific notice schedule either corresponds to schedule timesof product availability for at least one product, or wherein said eventspecific notice schedule is independent of said schedule times ofproduct availability for said at least one product.